2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

We Ought Always Thank God for This!

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on May 31, 2020 at Beacon Church

My parents separated when I was 15 and it seemed for a while like the bottom had fallen out of my world. But Joy welcomed us. That’s not a metaphor. Joy is my eldest cousin. She fed us. She hugged us. She made her home a second home for us. When I got married, (she also did our flowers!) she went up to the open mic and told how she was always amazed how whenever she was just taking hot butter tarts out of the oven, I would magically show up at her house. For me it was the other way around: so many times when I went looking for a little comfort, for some family, she was magically there with fresh-baked butter tarts. Joy died on Tuesday evening. A few hours before, I had a chance to speak to her as her daughter held the phone to her ear. For a moment I was lost for words—I wanted to repay her all her kindness to me, somehow, to give her some of that comfort, to help her remember she was about to be welcomed home to her Saviour with a welcome so much better than butter tarts! I wanted her to remember not to be afraid, to say something that would weaken her doubts and strengthen her hope.

Whether its an imminent death, or imminent danger, some dreaded thing, or global instability, what do you say to a Christian who needs weaker doubts and stronger hope? What do you say to a Christian friend who is barely hanging onto faith? What words do you share with a believing friend who is afraid of the cost of following Jesus? What do you tell someone who is worried that when push comes to shove, their convictions will crumble, and with it their hope, like the walls of a sandcastle undermined by the relentless, rising tide?

Remember, Paul is writing to people, Jewish and Gentile Thessalonians, only recently converted to Christ; to people already being persecuted, and now shaken and alarmed because they got some bad end-times teaching from somebody; to people who didn’t need any reminder about oppressive power of the Roman Empire; to people who now remembered that the Empire would one day be succeeded by the Antichrist and widespread Christian apostasy. These aren't people who will feel better if you give them a pretty greeting card with a Bible verse on it. These are people who believe and who want to be brave but the days ahead look grim. Paul and his fellow missionaries need to give these people reasons to be brave; reasons to stand shoulder to shoulder with each other in love; reasons to keep remembering, every day, to trust Jesus Christ; reasons to hope. And that's what they do in these verses at the end of chapter 3. Instead of a sappy card, or a prayer of platitudes, or even instead of sending them a 12-week Bible study in perseverance--instead--they lead them in thanking God. Thanksgiving. This morning I want you to see that the same comfort Paul gives the Thessalonians through God-ward gratitude for the past, the present, and the future that can also uphold you until Jesus comes.

Thank God for what He has done 

“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord…” (2 Thess. 2:13a ESV). It’s almost like Paul, in verse 13, resumes that thanksgiving to God he began earlier in 1:3. “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing,” (2 Thess. 1:3 ESV). They said they ought to be always grateful to God for their growing faith and love at the beginning of the letter, but then they paused. They paused to remind them that Jesus is coming again—with justice and relief for His people (1:5-10); to destroy the Antichrist and his apostasy (2:8); that those who fall for the Antichrist are people who reject the Gospel and do not accept the love of the truth (2:10); but now in verse 13 they are finished with pausing and they go back to thanking God. Because what we fear about the future is nothing compared to what is already true in the present! Paul is telling the Thessalonian believers that even the then future deception of the Antichrist isn’t enough make him pause any longer in giving thanks to God for what He was already doing in the lives of these ordinary followers of Jesus Christ. If we only had eyes to see what God is doing now in ordinary churches like that one in Thessalonica, you would agree with these apostles, that we owe it to God to never stop the flow of gratitude. And the first thing Paul shows gratitude for is that they are “beloved by the Lord.”

Here’s a verse to memorize: "We love because He first loved us," (1 Jo 4:19)--this is the foundational truth and fact of our salvation--God's love. His divine love is why any of us are Christians. It’s why God sent His only begotten Son (Jo 3:16). It is His love that chose us while we were sinners who wanted nothing to do with Him (Rom 5:8). Having mentioned God’s love, next they thank God for how the Thessalonians became Christians in the first place: “…Because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth,” (2 Thess. 2:13b ESV). Do you see how those who forfeit salvation, in vv10-11, are those who “refuse to love the truth”?

10 …And with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, (2 Thess. 2:10-11 ESV)

What a difference Paul sees in these believers in Thessalonica! Because they are “beloved by the Lord” they no longer refuse to love God’s truth.

The book of Deuteronomy was written at the end of Israel’s wilderness exile, forty years after their exodus from Egypt, as they stood on the brink of a new beginning. They were about to face giants when they crossed into Canaanite territory. And for the first time in this nation’s history, they wouldn’t have Moses to lead them. There were millions of them. A nation of former slaves—and before that, a tribe of nomads; and before that, a dysfunctional blended family of a man with two wives, two concubines, and twelve sons who make anybody’s kids seem like angels; and before that, a twin who stole his brother’s birthright; and before that, a nonagenarian married to an octogenarian hoping to start a family! Why did God choose Abram? Why did God choose Israel? That’s what Moses tells them to give them comfort as they cross the Jordan: "It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers," (Deu 7:7-8).

“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth,” (2 Thess. 2:13 ESV). The footnote on verse 13 has the right translation here: “from the beginning” (it’s a copying error thanks so some scribe—aparchen instead of ap arches).[i] I believe in free will. I believe God has free will. Our salvation did not begin with us but with God’s choice to love whomever He wills, and His love led Him to choose whom to save. Thank God His will is free! Because if it were up to any of us we would never choose to love God! He chose you to be saved (13c). How can you know that for sure? Because two things happened to you when you heard the Gospel: He gave you His Spirit and He gave you faith. The Spirit of God set you apart, sanctified you, and is still setting you apart, teaching you to keep on repenting and turning from sin. And you believe the truth. This word belief is “faith” and it’s not a blind leap—it’s in truth.

The Father chooses whom to save; the Spirit sets apart and sanctifies whomever God chooses; the saving work of the Son is believed in by those whom God chooses: “To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (2 Thess. 2:14 ESV). Paul is thanking God for how these Thessalonians became Christians in the first place: when they heard the truth, the Gospel these missionaries began preaching when they first arrived in Thessalonica! (c.f. 1:10b) They don’t say “remember, you asked Jesus into your heart!” They say they believed the testimony, the truth, the Gospel. Have you believed this good news yet? Have you responded to the truth by now saying, “Yes, Lord, I believe you”? Does your humble gratitude rise up to God from the knowledge that the Lord has set His love on you? You did nothing to earn God’s love and no power of earth or Hell can make Him turn His love away from those who believe in His Son. We ought always to thank God for this! The comfort Paul gives the Thessalonians teaches believers God-ward gratitude for the past.

Thank God for what He is doing 

“So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter,” (2 Thess. 2:15 ESV). “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold tight…” Why? If God deserves all the thanks for how the Thessalonians first became Christians, was it now up to them to do the rest? Does God make you His child and then leave you exposed to see if you are strong enough, good enough, obedient enough to survive the rest of this life on your own? Right after God rescued Israel from Egypt, just after the Ten Commandments, Ex 24:7 says this: “[Moses] he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, ‘All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient,’.” (Exodus 24:7) But they did not keep their word. They did not obey God. That generation of Israelites died without reaching the Promised Land. What makes Paul think these Thessalonians will succeed and obey when Israel fell?

Listen, remember why God chose Israel? Was it because they were so big and strong? Was it because they were the mightiest of nations? Was it because they were such good people? No, it was because the Lord loved them. When He led the people He loved into the wilderness, He wasn’t going to let them starve. He fed them manna. Do you think that God, who loved you and gave His Son to die for you and save you by grace, do you think He will abandon you now? Do you not think He will provide for you much better than He did for Israel in the wilderness? Do you not realize He feeds you now with food much better than manna from Heaven? “So then brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught by us…”

In that classic film, Fiddler On the Roof, Tevye sings with great gusto about the importance of "tradition" but that's not what Paul is talking about in verse 15.[ii] In Mark 7, Jesus spoke harshly against the traditions of men but that's not what Paul is talking about here. This word means "what was delivered." Like in 1 Cor 15:3, Paul when Paul says, "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…” (1 Co 15:3-4). And in 1 Co 11, it's the same word, when Paul writes, "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me,’.” (1 Co 11:23-24) What was delivered, the tradition, is what we believe. But it's more than just the Gospel. It’s also about “what is in accord with the Gospel” as we will see in 2 Thess 3:6. The command here, to stand firm and hold tight, has an object: something to stand firm in; something to hold tightly onto--what they had received in what these apostles had taught them, in person and by letter. This is our manna in our pilgrimage, our spiritual wilderness. Isn’t this what Moses meant when he preached his final sermon to Israel? “…He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD,” (Deu 8:3).

You want to know how to stand firm and never fall away from Christ? Stand in what the Apostles taught. You want to know how to survive the great apostasy, to resist the great deception of the Man of Lawlessness? Hold to what the Apostles taught. You want to know how to not be shaken, how not to waver, how not to be alarmed, how to keep your faith and live for Jesus whether He returns two months from now or 20 years from now? Stand firm and hold tightly to the teachings of the Christian faith given by the Apostles of Christ in the New Testament writings to the churches of Thessalonica, Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Asia, Bythynia, Pontus, Cappadocia, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea; to Theophilus, to Timothy, and Titus, and Philemon, to the Hebrew Christians, to the dispersed Christians, to the churches John wrote to, and those who heard the Gospel of Jesus from Matthew, Mark, and John. God has given us so much to hold onto! He has supplied us with such riches of His Word, to inform us, equip us, prepare us, and mature us in this Christian faith. These sacred Scriptures are our Christian tradition. If you stand firm and hold tight to these, though your body be beaten, your blood spilled, and your life be taken from you, you will never fall. You will live. You will obtain the glory of Jesus (14). We ought always to thank God for this! The comfort Paul gives the Thessalonians teaches believers God-ward gratitude for the past and the present.

Thank God for what He will do

16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,  17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (2 Thess. 2:16-17 ESV)

In verse 16, Paul begins to pray. But the request doesn’t come until verse 17. First the apostles tell their readers why they pray; next what they pray for. First it is what encourages them to pray to God and then it is what they ask Him. You always need a reason to pray. But what is it that usually makes you pray? Is it only your present needs? Or is it God’s grace in the past? In other words do you mainly pray because of what you lack or because of what God has already given you? Look at the verb tenses in verse 16: Past tense, then present tense in verse 17. It is a prayer that today, and tomorrow, and the next, (v17) will rest upon the fact of God’s grace in the past. Then there’s the reminder God is “our Father”—the first time Paul has called God “father” since 1:2. “Our Father.” This is a prayer that their Heavenly Father will treat His Thessalonian children with the same grace in all of their tomorrows as He already has in their yesterdays. In other words, that their Father will always treat them as His beloved children. And so that they might always live and act like the beloved children they are. Good works and words (17).

Have you ever heard of the “ovarian lottery?” That’s what Warren Buffett said children win who are born to wealthy parents.[iii] The facts of life are tough: kids born into rich families have advantages poor kids don’t. But a study of 70,000 kids in the UK, following them for 70 years, shows that there’s a lot more to a good life than money. It turns out that parenting really matters. Parents can do things that go a long way to closing the gap in the quality of life between the rich and the poor. Some of those things include “talking to and listening to your kids,” telling them of your plans for their future, “Being emotionally warm,” “reading to them daily (and encouraging them to read…)…”[iv] Parentage matters, so does parenting. Talking and listening matters. Love matters. Hope matters. Reading matters.

God didn’t just give his children Scriptures to read, He gave us so much more than that! Paul started off this section with how the apostles ought always to thank God for these Thessalonian Christians; in verse 16 his words are filled with awe at what all Christians have in common: a) Jesus Christ is “our Lord”; God is “our Father”—together, in the union of the Trinity, Jesus Himself and the Father have “loved us”—and what Has God given to us? “eternal comfort”—comfort here isn’t just feelings. In the New Testament usage, “comfort” is usually about the way God works through His Word or through events to give help to those who struggle and suffer for the sake of Christ. It is encouragement, and strength, and motivation, and guidance, and assurance lavishly supplied to all those who own Jesus Christ as “our Lord” and God as “our Father.”[v] The comfort He gives is first in the grace He has shown by loving us, choosing us to be saved, calling us through the Gospel to one day obtain the glory of Jesus, and by graciously supplying His Word to us every step of the way. But this comfort is “eternal” comfort. It is also the certainty of our hope, “good hope through grace”—hope that will not disappoint, but that promises with divine power a coming day we can’t yet see but a day we can nonetheless count on: when Christ will come and we will be gathered together to Him (v1). The comfort Paul gives the Thessalonians teaches believers God-ward gratitude for the past, the present, and the future that can also uphold you until Jesus comes.

If this is the Fatherhood of God holding us secure in His everlasting love; if this is the Lordship of Jesus Christ saving us from our sins, and saving us for His glory, how can we not turn to Him in our need, bend our knees and fold our hands and open our hearts to Him? And how will He not graciously give us all things—all things we need to keep believing, to keep hoping, to be comforted; all things we need to not be shaken in our minds, or alarmed; all things we need to stand firm and hold tight to His Word; all things we need to do more than merely survive, but to be fruitful, to be effective in His service, to fulfill the mission to which He has called us, the task for which He has equipped us, the ministry He has entrusted to us to be ambassadors of hope and good news and of God’s love to others whom He has chosen to be saved, and to whom He will call through our Gospel? May our Lord Jesus Christ and our heavenly Father thus comfort our hearts and establish us in every work and word. We ought always to thank God for this! So because God has so loved us, let us love Him with our lives, our works and our words.